1944 graduates gather for platinum reunion

Wednesday

Jun 18, 2014 at 10:07 AMJun 18, 2014 at 10:07 AM

By April M. Crehan acrehan@wickedlocal.com

As the Concord-Carlisle Class of 2014 celebrated their graduation Saturday in a crowded gym, a small group at the Colonial Inn did the same—for the 70th time.Jean Lord of Bolton and several of her classmates organized this year’s Class of 1944 Concord High School reunion for the alumni that, Lord joked, were ambulatory and still had their minds. The 1944 graduates are in their late 80s and some are scattered across the country and the globe, although a small local group still meets regularly for lunch.After so many years, the class has dwindled in size. Another organizer, Jean Schubert said she graduated with more than 100 classmates but that only about a dozen came to this year’s reunion."I just think it's wonderful to see people. It’s wonderful that they make the effort to get here," Schubert said. "People send letters if they can't make it… it's nice to keep track of old friends."Several of the attendees have younger relatives who have graduated from Concord High School or its current regional equivalent, Concord-Carlisle High School. Priscilla Oskirko of Maynard said she hopes the newer generations will also stay in touch with their classmates."I think it's fun myself and I think they should keep it up too," Oskirko said, noting that she has made new friendships over the years with classmates she knew, but not closely, in high school. She lived in West Concord until 1948 and called it a different world from Concord. She remembered being treated differently because she was from "the other side of the tracks," but noted the difference much less pronounced at school.Oskirko, who picked the venue for the event, said it is always a little sad to see old familiar storefronts disappear. The Colonial Inn, of course, is an exception to those disappearances and has been around longer than the 1944 classmates themselves."The Colonial Inn is the perfect place," said Lucy Cotoia, a Class of 1948 graduate married to Anthony Cotoia ’44. "We spent a lot of time here when we were dating." She said she has never missed one of her reunions and smiled as she talked about choosing to attend Concord High as a Lincoln resident. "I was familiar with Concord and I always loved it," Cotoia said.She was one of several spouses in attendance, adding slightly to the ever-shrinking pool of alumni who can attend.Before lunch was served, Lord paused for a moment of silence to remember recent passings of their classmates. She also updated them on alumni with health issues that prevented them from coming."I did send [invitations] to people out of state hoping they would respond with a short bio," Lord said. Many of them, she said, never bothered to reply. Attendees received a folder of class notes with any responses and, as is tradition, a poem by Schubert."We went into high school in 1940 and did our best and graduated and went on with our lives and we're still around," Schubert said of the poem’s theme. "’Our final anthem has not been sung; our final bell has not been rung,’" she quoted, "which is true."You can find April on Twitter every day @CreInConcord.